| 16 • July • 2007
|| Christine Jaquays -- Independent Beauty Consultant |
| Christine is an independent beauty consultant for Mary Kay, America's best selling brand. It's not just for women anymore ... they have a line of fragrances, skin care, and sun care for guys too. She fulfill orders anywhere in the country, but if you're in the Dallas area, you may want to consider arranging a personal skin care seminar for yourself and some friends.
Visit her Mary Kay site here!
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| 31 • December • 2006
|| And They Lived Happily Ever After ... |
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Christine and Paul's biggest news of 2006 was our marriage on July 15 in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Mack Hannah, pastor of the Dunwoody Baptist Church presided over the wedding services which were held in the upstairs banquet rooms of Maggianos restaurant at the Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, Georgia. The wedding party consisted of Christine's daughter Honnah as the Maid of Honor, accompanied by Paul's daughter Amanda as bridesmaid, with Paul's son Zach performing the duties of Best Man, accompanied by Paul's brother Bruce as groomsman. Christine's great niece Kaley was the flower girl.
Highlights of the service included the non-traditional music selected by the bride and groom: Etta James performance of At Last for the bride's processional entry and John Williams Throne Room - Finale from the original Star Wars movie served as the recessional as Mr. and Mrs. Paul Jaquays departed the hall. The bride and groom wrote their own wedding vows which can be read here. Following the ceremony, a luncheon was served in an adjoining hall where guests of all ages were charmed and amazed by a magician who went from table to table performing feats of prestidigitation.
Christine insisted to Paul that he not tell her where they would honeymoon. In keeping with that wish, Paul chose not to tell anyone associated with the wedding, including their kids. He did tell Honnah how to pack for Christine, but not where they were going. After the wedding, Paul gave special, sealed envelopes to close family members to be opened in the event of an emergency. |
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In the case of Christine's daughter, the emergency was that she was going to burst if she didn't learn where her mom was going. So, of course, she was the last to get her envelope, handed to her as her car pulled away from the restaurant. Even so, she knew the destination before her mom did. As Paul and Christine rode in the shuttle van from parking to the airport, he gave her a special card that revealed the destination -- London, England!
Paul and Christine had a great time in London (and other parts of England), but nothing could have prepared them for the record breaking heat that descended upon the country during the week they were there. And because they went for local charm instead of modern convenience, their hotel in the Belgravia section of London did not have air-conditioning. Regardless they had a wonderful time filled with memories and adventures.
Although married, Paul and Christine lived apart (she near Atlanta, he near Dallas) until a month later when Paul flew to join Christine after she had dropped her daughter off at college. They drove together to Paul's (now their) home in a small town near Dallas, Texas. And they have lived happily ever after.
Click Here to Read Their Wedding Vows
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| 01 • January • 2007
|| Two Years of Graduations |
| The past two years were highlighted by milestones in the lives of our kids: Graduations, college matriculations, and first jobs in "the biz"! In May of 2005, Paul's daughter Amanda graduated from high school. In the fall of 2005, she started college at an out of state university. We were sad to see her leave the nest, but happy that she was excited about the changes in her life. Less than a month later, Paul's son Zach completed his education at Guildhall at SMU as a part of the second class to graduate from the school. He immediately went to work as an art contractor for Microsoft/Ensemble Studios, working on both Age of Empires III and The War Chiefs. In May of 2006, Christine's daughter Honnah graduated from high school. In August, she bid Atlanta goodbye and started her college career at a university in another state. |
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| 08 • January • 2005
|| Ensemble Studios Announces Age of Empires 3 |
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(Dallas, TX) Microsoft Game Studios and Ensemble Studios are proud to announce the return of the king of real-time strategy games: Age of Empires III is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2005. This will be the latest landmark release in the award-winning franchise that has sold a staggering 16 million units worldwide.
Age of Empires III will offer gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail. The new game picks up where Age of Empires II: Age of Kings left off, placing gamers in the position of a European power determined to explore, colonize and conquer the New World. This time period features stunning scenes, from towering European cathedrals to courageous tribes of Native Americans, and spectacular combat with Industrial Age units like rifled infantry, cavalry and tall ships bristling with cannons.
Age of Empires III will once again demonstrate Ensemble Studios' reputation for excellence and innovation in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. The game will set a new standard for visual quality and amaze players with detail never before seen in an RTS. Age of Empires III will excite strategy gamers with new game-play elements, including the concept of a “Home City,“ new civilizations, units, technologies and an immersive new single-player campaign that will span three generations.
Ensemble Studios is one of the world's premier entertainment software developers. Ensemble Studios is best known for its blockbuster Age of Empires game series. Ensemble's titles are distinguished by the highest-quality art and gameplay dynamics applied in familiar historical settings, and appeal to hard-core gamers and mass audiences. Ensemble Studios is based in Dallas, Texas.
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| 08 • January • 2005
|| Congratulations Guildhall Graduates |
| Congratulations to the Cohort 1 game development students of Guildhall at SMU. They are the first graduates of the program ... young men of great faith -- for they came to an untested program and guided it to become what will hopefully be a force in education of game developers. For more details check out the Guildhall at SMU. One a side note, I will be addressing the incoming class, Cohort 5 on Monday, January 10th. I look forward to meeting them and welcoming them to the game industry (something that has become a bit of a tradition at the school ... though my welcoming speeches are often more of the "put the fear of God into 'em" type (as you can see here.) |
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| 25 • November • 2004
|| Guildhall at SMU to Graduate First Cohort of Students |
| On December 11th, of 2004 Guildhall at SMU will graduate its first class or "cohort" of students. These students started their journey into game development education in July of 2003. On December 10th, the Guildhall will be hosting a Show of Games that will put the work of all three active cohorts on display, including demonstrations of several team projects and numerous individual focus projects ... 70 presentations in all. For more details check out the Guildhall at SMU. |
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| 17 • September • 2004
|| Would You, Could You be My Bride? |
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In July of 2004, I asked a very special woman if she would share the rest of my life with me as my wife. Christine Bakhtiary said yes, with all her heart and soul, formalizing something we had both felt in our hearts since the very first days of our relationship, even before we ever met in person, that we had found a 'soulmate' in each other. As the announcement notes, wedding plans are forthcoming. Christine created the announcement using a poem I had written on the inside of a Dr. Seuss-themed card I had sent to her. |
| 28 • August • 2004
|| Caverns of Thracia Reissued |
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Necromancer Games, an independent publisher of adventure gaming aids has republished one of my earliest professional game projects Caverns of Thracia. I designed, wrote, and illustrated the original version of this role playing adventure for Judges Guild back in 1979 when I was a staff designer/artist for the company. It was licensed for use with the original version of Dungeons & Dragons, then published by TSR, Inc. The revised version is set up to work with the D20 game system, upon which the 3rd Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules are based (or is it the other way around?). The Necromancer Games website has more information. The product should be in distribution (through White Wolf), September 6, 2004. |
| 28 • August • 2004
|| Guestbook is Gone |
| After being hacked twice by anti-semitic/anti-Israel punks and having to repeatedly clean out bot-generated commercial links (mostly for French and German sites) I've decided that having a guestbook isn't worth the bother. I've replaced the Guestbook link with a dummy, but will eventually remove it altogether. It was an interesting experiment, but having someone tell me about the "Death of the Stickman" or praising my informative articles gets tiring. I suspect it had mostly to do with generating offsite links to commercial sites to increase their likelihood of being listed in commercial web searches. Stinking bots. |
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| 20 • January • 2004
|| Guildhall Admits Second Cohort of Students |
| On January 12th, of 2004 Guildhall at SMU held a convocation ceremony marking the beginning of classes for the second cohort of students entering the Guildhall game development certificate program. Several game industry professionals provided the new and returning students with their insights on working in the game industry, and what it would take for them to turn their studies into careers. I was one of the speakers. You can read the text of my speech by clicking on this [LINK]. |
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| 19 • January • 2004
|| Someday My Prints Will Come |
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The Jaquays Art Marketplace now Carries Jaquays Art PrintsTo celebrate the New Year, I've updated my on-line store to include nearly all my available fine art prints. These prints can be ordered on-line using PayPal or with other forms of payment. Look for additional prints and posters to be added in coming weeks.Click on the image or caption directly to the left to visit the store now. |
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| Jaquays Art Marketplace |
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| 16 • November • 2003
|| My 15 Minutes of Fame |
| This is late getting up, but this past summer, I did an interview with Charles Haddad of Business Week magazine regarding the Guildhall at SMU. The article was following up on a comment that Comedian Jay Leno had made on his Tonight Show television program poking some fun a university that would be crazy enough to have coursework teaching video game design. Leno was obviously playing it for laughs, but Business Week took it seriously. Well, sort of seriously. Mr. Haddad selected what was probably the least serious quote I made about game development to use as the tagline in his article. Anyway, that was my 15 minutes of fame (at least as far as the "normal" world is concerned). I've hi-lited the relevant portion of the scan. This appeared in the July 7, 2003 issue of BusinessWeek.
Click on the image to read a scan of the article. |
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| 9 • November • 2003
|| It's Me in that Guildhall at SMU Advertisement! |
| An advertisement for Guildhall at SMU that is running in the November issue of Game Developer magazine features me and what I have to say about the Guildhall at SMU program. The first cohort of Guildhall students is half-way through their second term and the second cohort of students will be starting in January of 2004. |  |
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| 24 • January • 2003
|| Be Our Guest |
| I've added a Guestbook feature to the site. It's not yet linked on all the pages, but that should happen eventually. You can reach it from this page, though. Stop by, leave a message, let me know how you like or dislike the site. |
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| 18 • January • 2003
|| The Paul Jaquays MarketPlace at Jaquays.com is Now Open for Business! |
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The doors are open, come on in!Even if you've seen the rest of my site, there's more art to be viewed here ... most of it not seen online anywhere else before. There are pieces of all sizes and media, representing a cross-section of my art career. You'll find very early work done for Judges Guild up through the small paintings used as the basis for Quake III Arena textures. There are a number of my larger paintings for sale, including several covers used for TSR game books and novels.There are 24 pieces in the gallery right now and new work will be added regularly. You can also link to Fantasy-Emporium.com which carries my art prints and CafePress which allows you to buy mugs and shirts imprinted with some of my images. Click on the image or caption directly to the left to visit the store now. |
| Jaquays Art Marketplace |
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| 18 • January • 2003
|| Zach Jaquays Gallery now works with Netscape |
| My son Zach's site [LINK] has been "upgraded" to work with NetScape. School and studies have kept him busy, so there's no content updates. But, if you've not stopped in before, now's the time to check on what the next generation of Jaquays artists has been doing. |
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| 06 • January • 2003
|| Guildhall at Southern Methodist University announced |
| Southern Methodist University, a prominent private university located in Dallas, Texas has launched their Guildhall website today. Guildhall is a university level certificate program designed to teach students to become game developers. Different from other programs, Guildhall has been created by experts in game development and will be taught by the experts. The content and class structure for the three separate tracks (art, software development, and level design) has been designed and guided by industry professionals. Notable names associated with development of the program and its curriculum include Graeme Devine of id Software (software development), Richard "levelord" Gray of Ritual (level design) and Paul Jaquays of Ensemble Studios (art). | |
Applicants seeking to be among the first 100 students who will make up Guildhall's first class should visit the Guildhall [LINK] website and find what they need to do to apply. Classes begin in July of 2003.
EDIT (18 Jan., 2003): There's a good interview with David Najjab, the director of digital gaming at SMU on HomeLAN [LINK] telling even more about Guildhall's program and some of the other local (Dallas) development people involved with it.
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